1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to accessing web content. More particularly, the present invention relates to searching web content.
2. Background Art
Packet networks, like the Internet for instance, have increasingly become a resource of choice for those seeking access to information. Initially, the information being provided over these networks typically took the form of relatively static data, and the formatting languages developed to facilitate information exchange were optimized for presentation of such data. One of these languages, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), was used extensively in the design of early web pages. Partly as a result of its pervasiveness as a format in early web design, search engines developed to assist network users in retrieving desired content were designed to optimize retrieval of HTML data, and most retain that emphasis today.
As the user base of packet networks has broadened to include sophisticated vendors and consumers, however, greater importance has been placed on those networks as sources of advertising and entertainment. Savvy and increasingly demanding consumers desire to access frequently updated information, and have increasingly lofty expectations of the richness of packet network provided entertainment. Advertisers, seeking to meet these enhanced consumer expectations, have found the conventional HTML format too constraining. As a result, more and more web content is being developed using formats more enabling of the dynamic, rich media experience preferred by web users. Embedded graphics applications such as Flash and Silverlight, for example, have made it possible for advertisers to provide the dynamic graphical web content demanded by consumers.
Although advertisers have invested substantial resources in providing the type of rich media content desired by the consumers they seek to attract, those consumers may be unaware of the presence of that content, and be unable to search for it using one of the popular search engines. As mentioned, most search engines were designed to survey and index the traditional web infrastructure comprising HTML data. Consequently, those search engines may not recognize, or be able to retrieve, web content formatted to provide dynamic graphical content or other types of rich media applications. As a result, a web user entering a search query in a standard web search engine, has a high probability of retrieving largely static HTML data content, and a much lower likelihood of retrieving dynamic graphical web content from a Flash web page, for example. Thus, despite the efforts of advertisers and the preferences of consumers, limitations in conventional web search technologies render much of the dynamic graphical web content, as well as other rich media applications such as web plug-ins, largely invisible to those seeking them out.
One conventional approach to overcoming the problem of searching for dynamic graphical web content and other rich media applications is shown in FIG. 1, which requires the hosting of complementary web sites. FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a conventional communication system corresponding to a conventional web search. As shown in FIG. 1, communication system 100 includes client computer 102 communicating with web search engine 104 to perform a search for content available through packet network 106. A portion of the available content accessible through packet network 106 resides on content storage 110. Content storage 110 holds dynamic graphical web content 112, which when loaded by client computer 102, results in client computer 102 calling remote data feed 122, using data link 114. Content storage 110 also hosts companion content 116, which is formatted to be searchable by search engine 104.
In communication system 100 of FIG. 1, dynamic graphical web content 112 and remote data feed 122, which may correspond to a Flash web site and Flash feed, for example, are not searchable by web search engine 104. As a result, a search of packet network 106, using web search engine 104, for content corresponding to dynamic graphical web content 112, cannot retrieve dynamic graphical web content 112, or information contained in data feed 122, as indicated by broken communication links 118a and 118b. In order to make dynamic graphical web content 112 discoverable by client computer 102, the sponsor of that content must additionally provide companion content 116, which duplicates some of the information provided by dynamic graphical content 112 in a format searchable by search engine 104, for instance as an HTML web site. Companion content 116 may also provide a link (not shown in FIG. 1), allowing client computer 102 to navigate to dynamic graphical web content 112, for example.
The conventional solution represented by FIG. 1, while not making dynamic graphical web content 112 searchable by web search engine 104, does allow a user of client computer 102 to obtain information about dynamic graphical web content 112 from companion content 110, or to be redirected to the otherwise invisible content. This solution is significantly incomplete, however, because web search engine 104 remains unable to supply client computer 102 with information about dynamic components provided by remote data feed 122. In addition, the solution of FIG. 1 entails significant disadvantages flowing from the need to support a duplication of complementary web sites, which include the resource commitments required to maintain dual sites, as well as the problem of harmonizing of the sites, so that updates to one are appropriately reflected in the other.
In short, in many web searches performed today, a query entered into a search engine fails to retrieve dynamic graphical web content relevant to the search criteria, because that content is effectively invisible to commonly utilized web search engines, as described in relation to FIG. 1. As a result, those seeking to make dynamic graphical web content easier for web search engine users to locate, may resort to providing dual, complementary web sites. Today, in conventional systems, a first site comprises a format that enables presentation of dynamic graphical content, but is not searchable by most search engines; and, a second site is supported to complement the preferred site and comprise a non-preferred format selected because it is searchable by most search engines. However, this conventional solution imposes disadvantages associated with the need to maintain two sites concurrently, and the burden of harmonizing the content of those sites in order to avoid user confusion due to inconsistencies in the content of the different sites.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a more efficient, reliable and robust solution for making dynamic graphical web content and other rich web applications searchable by widely available web search engines.